Director/cinematographer Ben Dolphin recalls a DGA demo for HD that took place about ten years back, when the projection systems were still in their infancy. “They projected HD on a screen, and, well, it looked like TV on a big screen,” says Dolphin. “I said as much, and their response was, ‘Oh, no … you’re film-biased.’ To which I said, ‘No guys, I’m quality-biased.’”

His bias remains unchanged today, but the range of tools he employs has broadened as technology develops further. Dolphin’s cinematography skill sets include Steadicam and motion-control, but he is best known for work shooting liquids and high-speed, for which he’s developed very specific lighting schemes. Shooting film below 500 fps he may use a “1.5 to 1 ratio of HMI over Unilux,” he explains. “There is crystalline sharpness with the powerful Unilux strobes, while the HMI light introduces some degree of motion blur for appetite appeal and prevents the image from becoming medical-looking.”

While shooting a spot in Chicago for Black Cherry Vanilla Coke last year, Dolphin combined 35mm film elements with high-speed macro captured HD on a Vision Research Phantom camera. “There is an iconic look and feel to the Coke glass, so that had to be done with film,” he states. “But the high speed pours and many post elements turned out just fine using the Phantom. When shooting digitally, I can control the exposure time and therefore edge detail by adjusting a drop down menu on the camera. While capturing Golden Beer Bubbles in Prague with a Phantom camera, the material also wound up being re-employed as branding tools. After that, I started developing the idea of a project that would use high-speed shots that could be played back live.”

Since Dolphin’s first career was in dance and he later taught a class in choreography for camera at the NYU School of Arts while working his way up through the production ranks, he had feet firmly planted in both worlds, which inspired his original notion for an artistic high-speed presentation. “I thought of using Vision Research’s Phantom cameras for a live-action performance, collaborating with dancers choreographing nano-speed events while interacting with an eight-foot wide waterfall and fire elements. The years spent as a high-speed and liquid specialist caused me to fall in love with the subtle surprises and revelations that emerge at

high frame rates. I planned to capture with a pair of cameras, then immediately play the event back via rear projection behind the dancers. I figured on speed-ramping the action from fifteen to thirty seconds in length on playback. Then I’d stage another live-action nano-event and begin layering these in playback before the live audience.”

This exciting notion—a kind of live show equivalent to timeslice/frozentime/bullet-time multi-tasking—soon received a setback. “In order to generate interest in the live performance, I needed to shoot a spec piece first,” he says. Disappointed but undaunted, Dolphin set about with an alternate approach, citing his many years practicing Yoga as an aid to the process. “Yoga offers you the opportunity to practice suffering for a goal with equanimity, which is helpful in this business,” explains Dolphin. Dolphin’s concept for Arising (originally, Making the Invisible Visible) starts “In a kind of prehistoric time, when people are undifferentiated; the group of dancers is like a landscape of bodies. Through movement, they start to make inquiry into themselves. Each dancer arises to confront a truth, with the element of a water barrier challenging them.”

The project required a number of potentially costly elements, but nearly all wound up donated. “I called in a lot of favors,” says Dolphin. “Cine Magic Stages in New York gave me a free stage and lights. Only the dancers got paid, which is a reversal from the way things usually happen, since everybody always assumes that dancers will work for free out of love for what they do. After weeks of rehearsal, these fearless dancers put up with two 14-hour days, wearing only thongs, diving off springboards and into an ice-cold waterfall. I relied upon the strength and skill of the dancers catching each other to keep them from killing themselves. At least I was able to make sure everybody ate well; getting really good food that worked for dancer diets as well as crew appetites was a delicious challenge.”

Schedule issues eliminated the participation of Dolphin’s planned co-choreographer. “At the point I realized I would have to do all the choreography myself, plus act as DP and direct, I gave up on operating A-camera. My need to maintain a directorial connection with the performers took precedence. A-Camera operator Mark Kohl came up from Florida at his own expense to shoot for me. My longtime first AC, Bill Floyd, also operated B-camera, while for C-camera, I had Mitch Gross from Abel CineTech, the company accessorizing all our Phantoms.”

In exchange for providing three Phantom cameras, including the Phantom 65, Vision Research hoped to show Dolphin’s completed film at NAB. “Vision Research has been doing high speed work for over fifty years,” notes Dolphin. “I’ve shot on their cameras in the US, Canada, Mexico and Prague and they are my favorites. Vision’s Rick Robinson also supplied us with D.I.T.s for each camera, including my brother Terry who was trained there.” Dolphin is clearly most impressed with the 10 megapixel Phantom 65. “At 4096x2040, the Phantom 65 is the only digital system on the planet right now that really rivals film resolution, and there are only two of them available so far. While we had Leica glass for the HD cameras, we used Hasselblad lenses on the 65.”

The Phantoms have a capability to change pixel configuration, but Dolphin always maintained a 1920x1080 ratio on the HD cameras. “I’d match that on the 65, which I only shot at rates up to 140 fps,” he explains. “You have the capability for going to 200 or 300, but wind up with a smaller frame size, and I didn’t want to sacrifice.”
His initial plan was to use the 65 for reverse angle shots on sticks, though ultimately that camera was used on a variety of shots. Shooting at different frame rates, the cameras were usually mounted on a jib arm/crane and a skateboard dolly, their coverage allowing for seamless matching and/or extending of action.

“We always had at least one camera moving, and oftentimes we’d do some handheld, with a camera on the ground beneath the dancers,” says Dolphin. “The camera was in a flashbag for protection, but the operator often got a little wet.”

Lighting for the elaborate water dance had to address many seemingly contradictory issues. Dolphin’s inventory included ARRI HMIs, plus Mole-Richardson mini-brutes and 20Ks. “I needed sharp definition for the water, but a beauty look for the dancers,” says Dolphin. “That required a combination of hard and soft light. I’d have a large diffused source, then cut holes in the diffusion [Lee Full White 216 and Opal Frost] so that hard light came through in the same direction. I used HMI and tungsten lighting because the liquid, as it moves through various planes, picks up different colors, which enriches the visual experience, especially when shooting against black. I also had P.A.s and lighting techs pulling gels through the key light adding interactive flashes to the picture. This helped the feeling that these people were confronting truth/water and getting to a new place, hence ‘arising.’” Dolphin employed a range of Lee products [including Congo Blue 181, Pretty ‘n Pink 794, Magical Magenta 795 and Bright Red 026] to introduce the color cues.

With this predilection for color, it is perhaps no surprise that the cinematographer names Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC as his favorite DP. “I agree with his notions about color and its emotional impact, and how we are influenced by it on a sub-intellectual level,” reveals Dolphin. “My visual arc on Arising went from low and dark to high and light, in keeping with the chakras, starting with red and progressing to violet. Even my shot list was color-coded, which helped communicate to both cast and crew where we were all supposed to be at any given point in terms of emotion and evolution and performance.

“I do my homework and I’m prepared to be inspired on the set by the contributions of my team. I remember my days as a PA, a second electric, and gaffer, I always wanted to make a creative contribution, and I want to work with people with that mindset. My key grip, Larry Steinberg, called the job ‘pleasure-gripping,’ in part because it was so participatory. Mark Kohl brought tremendous ideas; my dance captain Ashley Browne was instrumental in helping finesse moves with the dancers.” For gaffing the show, Dolphin feels he was extraordinarily fortunate to have “two of those unsung heroes, Glen Miller and lead gaffer Raffaello ‘Raffi’ Ferrucci, who at age 69 is still absolutely unstoppable.”

Arising continues its evolution. “Digital Kitchen made a short first cut that is really dynamic, Vision Research made a G-rated version for NAB,” Dolphin recounts. “But this was always conceived as a portfolio piece, so now I’m working on my own version [with NY-based Visual Effects, Motion Graphics company The Molecule], and will be adding a lot of my pre-existing shot-on-film fire elements, which will augment those interactive gel-flashing moments. Digital resolution is now sufficiently good enough to ensure a non-intrusive blend with film, which makes it very exciting work for me.”